Archive for November, 2017

Your Alumni Ambassadors

Posted on: November 10th, 2017 by bryan.wolf No Comments
Joe Cote

Alumni President
Joseph Cote

On behalf of the MMA Alumni Association, I’d like to extend a heartfelt congratulations to the 2017 graduating class. We encourage you to stay connected with your alma mater and invite you to participate in your local alumni chapter or group. When we come together, we all benefit by networking and creating opportunities to help fulfill or jump-start our professional careers. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Office of Alumni Relations if you have questions on how to get connected.

Shawn Longfellow ’86, chair of the Alumni Association Involvement Committee, the staff in the Office of Alumni Relations, and many others,
have been very busy on the Class Agent initiative. A Class Agent is an ambassador for his or her class year who serves as a peer-to-peer liaison between fellow classmates and MMA. The Agent will assist the Association to obtain accurate alumni contact information, improve communication among classmates and with MMA, and encourage alumni to engage with the academy through events, volunteer opportunities and reconnecting with ‘lost’ alumni. As of this printing, we have Agents representing 53 of 72 classes.

“We have Class Agents representing 53 of 72 classes.”

For more information on Class Agent involvement, please contact the AlumniOffice at alumni@mma.edu.

Thanks to all who participated in the Maritime Alumni Participation Challenge. MMA outdistanced Mass Maritime and SUNY Maritime alumni donors by more than 2 percent during the challenge. This year’s event was shortened by 12 days, but we had almost as many total alumni donors as last year! Well done.

Homecoming 2017 planning is well underway. Save the dates of September 15–17 for what will be another fun-filled campus event. Registration materials will be mailed and also available online in July. I hope to see you there.
Best regards,

Joseph Cote's Signature

Joe Cote

HELLO!!

Chopper Calling

Posted on: November 10th, 2017 by bryan.wolf No Comments

After graduating with a bachelor’s in Small Vessel Operations, I worked on tugs for a while, but life took me in a different direction. It brought me to the New Hampshire Army National Guard in which I became an UH-60 Blackhawk pilot in a Medical Evacuation (MEDEVAC) unit.Currently, I lead a Forward Support Medical Platoon. Our job is to operate autonomously in an oftentimes austere combat environment, and provide 24/7 MEDEVAC coverage to our fighting forces. Day or night, if we get a call, we are sprinting to our aircraft. (more…)

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Class Notes

Posted on: November 10th, 2017 by bryan.wolf No Comments
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Whisper in a Storm

Posted on: November 10th, 2017 by bryan.wolf No Comments

The training and discipline I learned at MMA has stood me well over the years.

There was the trip through Typhoon Karen in November, 1962, for example. I was a 3rd engineer and engineering watch officer on 8-to-12’s aboard the USNS Breton (T-AKV-42) when she left Guam to ride out the storm at sea. The Breton was launched in 1942 as a 495-ft. auxiliary aircraft carrier; mothballed after WWII; and then recommissioned and designated a troop ship and aircraft ferry when I served aboard.

It was toward the end of my watch when we entered the storm’s eyewall. As is customary, I sent the oiler down to make sure the bilges were dry and to get the propeller turns during the shift to give to the navigators. The oiler did not return. (more…)

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Special Delivery

Posted on: November 10th, 2017 by bryan.wolf No Comments

Special Delivery

A new graduating class and efforts to help you stay connected

The 74th Commencement was truly a happy day, as always. Despite some rain, we had record attendance as families and friends watched the ceremony.

William J. Brennan

MMA President
Dr. William J. Brennan

In my remarks to the Class of 2017, I noted our heritage—75 years of rigorous, hands-on education that, through every graduate, has earned Maine Maritime Academy a world-renowned reputation. It is now up to them to continue that heritage.

As they do so, I hope they will honor those who came before them and lend a helping hand to those who come after them.

Our Commencement speaker and colleague from my political days, U.S. Senator Susan M. Collins, spoke of a similar respect for our alumni and heritage. Most important, she commended our alumni who are doing great work around the world.

There is a balance we strike in our work at Maine Maritime Academy: to honor and respect our history and keep traditions alive for new students, our community, and friends, while also looking ahead, planning for the future, and taking advantage of new opportunities.

One of the ways we strike that balance is right here in the Mariner magazine. This is one of the venues where we all stay connected, through the years, and through the changes that inevitably transpire.

As you look through the magazine, you will see some changes are afoot. As many of you know, the Mariner staff fielded a readership survey distributed to more than 3,000 alumni with email addresses, and we received much-needed input on the content and delivery of the magazine.

The goal of the survey was to determine Mariner’s approval rating and topics of most interest to alumni, as well as to gather input that will help in planning for the future.

The takeaway from the survey and other feedback is that alumni are keenly interested, first, in staying connected with other alumni via news, such as professional updates and Class Notes; second, Mariner is their number-one source of information about MMA; and, third, they want to know of the academy’s progress and growth, student achievements and academic experiences.

Through Mariner we all stay connected, through the years, and through the changes that inevitably transpire

Survey participants also noted they appreciate stories that reflect institutional history and traditions.

In addition to addressing magazine content, we plan to reach more alumni where they are, which translates to expanding delivery avenues. Digital editions of the magazine that are easy to read for devices of all sizes is ultimately the way to increase that reach, and we will update you as we make progress on that front.

Hat toss

Hats fly as graduates celebrate at 2017 Commencement.

Please let us know what you think of the new columns, such as First-Person, Entrepreneur and Sea Stories.

For more on the survey results, visit mainemaritime.edu/mariners-forever/stay-connected/mariner-magazine on the web.

As always, please keep in touch.

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Alumni News

Posted on: November 10th, 2017 by bryan.wolf No Comments

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Lost & Found

Posted on: November 10th, 2017 by bryan.wolf No Comments

Lost & Found

In 1984, Dan Aube ’78 lived in Massachusetts and worked for Stone & Webster Engineering when a break-in occurred and his class ring was stolen, among other items. The loss hit hard, but he resigned it to fate.

But as fate would have it, a call to the MMA alumni office recently from a woman who found the ring while organizing her elderly mother’s possessions led to its return to Aube after 33 years. The daughter determined the ring was from MMA and noticed Aube’s name inscribed inside the band. Her mother found the ring years ago alongside a road while picking berries.

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Cool Co-op at BMW

Posted on: November 10th, 2017 by bryan.wolf 1 Comment

Cool Co-op at BMW

Overseeing logistics of classic cars made the experience zoom by.

Lyla Mathieu likely was born with a wrench nearby.

Mathieu, a senior in International Business and Logistics, has been around cars nearly all her life, as her father owns a body shop in which she began to participate as part of the business when she was 15. “I just fell in love with cars,” she says, “and about the same time I spent a year living and attending high school in Germany.” (more…)

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